The gregarine protozoan, Porospora gigantea 

 (Van Beneden), has been reported as parasitic 

 in the digestive tract of the European lobster 

 (Hatt, 1928, 1931), and was found in all of 202 

 American lobsters examined from the Magda- 

 len Islands, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada, 

 by Montreuil (1954). Porospora nephropis has 

 been described from the Norway lobster, Ne- 

 plnops iiorvegicus L., by Leger and Duboscq 

 (1915a) and Tuzet and Ormieres (1962). 



"Spiny lobsters" (family Palinuridae) are of 

 economic importance in many parts of the 

 world, but little is known about their diseases 

 (Sims, 1966). One fatal and apparently infec- 

 tious disease of PcDinlirMS wgus (Latreille) 

 from Florida waters was observed by H. W. 

 Sims 'written communication, April 8, 1967). 

 Affected individuals became disoriented and 

 their ribdomens were "milky" — a condition rem- 

 iniscent of microsporidan infections of shrimps 

 (Spr.gue, 1950a) and fresh- water crayfishes 

 (Sprague, 1950b; Sogandares-Bernal, 1962), as 

 was pointed out by Sims. Two fungus para- 

 sites, Ranndaria braiichialis and Didiiinaria 

 palinuri, have been described recently from the 

 gills of PcDuiUrus vulgaris in Italy by Sordi 

 (1958). R. bra)ichialis was also found on the 

 gills of Hot)iarus vidgaris. 



Diseases Caused b\' Helminths 



Immature aspidobothrid trematodes, Sticho- 

 cotijle nepliropis Cunningham, encyst in the 

 stomach and intestinal walls of lobsters — N. 

 norvegicus and H. americanus — from Europe 

 and North America (Cunningham, 1887; Nick- 

 erson, 1894; Herrick, 1895; Odhner, 1910; Mon- 

 treuil, 1954; MacKenzie, 1963). Montreuil 

 found the parasite in lobsters taken near the 

 mouth of the Bay of Fundy in the Gulf of 

 Maine but not in more than 500 lobsters exam- 

 ined from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Adult S. 

 nephropis parasitize several species of skates 

 and rays (Odhner, 1898; Linton, 1940). 



A larval nematode, tentatively assigned to 

 the genus Ascarophis Van Beneden, has been 

 recognized from lobsters taken off northeastern 

 United States (Anonymous [Uzmann], 1966; 

 Uzmann, 1967a). Adults of the genus occur in 

 fishes, particularly gadoids (Uspenskaya, 1953) . 

 Larvae occurred commonly in lobsters from 

 Georges Bank and several canyons along the 



edge of the Continental Shelf south of Cape 

 Cod, Mass., but were absent in lobsters from 

 near the coast. The larvae were encysted in the 

 rectal wall of 25 percent of the offshore lob- 

 sters examined by Uzmann, who speculated 

 that larvae from lobsters reach maturity in 

 abundant cod {Gadus morhua L.) and haddock 

 {Melanogrammus aeglejinns (L.)) populations 

 of Georges Bank. 



A larval acanthocephalan, probably of the 

 genus Corynosoma, was identified in American 

 lobsters from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and 

 elsewhere in the Canadian Maritime Provinces 

 by Montreuil (1954). The worms were usually 

 encysted in the thin wall of the intestine, al- 

 though some had apparently perforated the gut 

 and encysted in the heart and body muscles. 

 Montreuil believed that accidental gut perfora- 

 tion may provide a route of entry for secondary 

 invaders, and account for appreciable mortality. 

 Feeding experiments with cats and seals sug- 

 gested that the stage of Corynosoma in the lob- 

 ster is not infective to mammals. 



Havinga (1921), in a discussion of artificial 

 lobster rearing in the Netherlands, described 

 the attachment of a small green annelid worm, 

 Histriobdella homari Van Beneden, to the eggs 

 and to all parts of the bodies of larval and adult 

 lobsters in Norway. He attributed poor success 

 in production of larvae to effects of the worm. 

 The same parasite had been observed earlier 

 (Sund, 1914, 1915) in massive numbers on 

 eggs of lobsters held in floating boxes at Kors- 

 havn, Norway, where it was held responsible 

 for destruction of the brood. Every female lob- 

 ster was infested with thousands of worms, and 

 they also occurred on larvae. Although H. ho- 

 mari had not been reported previously from 

 American lobsters, Uzmann (1967b) has re- 

 cently found it to be widely distributed on the 

 gills of lobsters in New England coastal waters 

 from Maine to Connecticut, and on those from 

 Georges Bank as well. 



Diseases Caused by Parasitic Crustaceans 



A blood-sucking parasitic copepod, Nicothoe 

 astaci Audouin and Milne-Edwards, has been 

 found on the gills of European lobsters. The 

 parasite was prevalent in Scottish waters 

 (Thomas, 1954; Mason, 1958, 1959) and was 

 seen by Korringa (1957b) in lobsters being 



DISEASES OF THE MARINE BIVALVE MOLLUSCA AND CRUSTACEA 



359 



